The Dispatches Of Hira Singh – Phil

“The World Is In Utter Darkness Without Stories” Once and Future Myth.. Phil Cousineau

I am reading this book now, and it is marvellous. The full title is ‘Once & Future Myth:The Power of Ancient Storytelling”.

Overtime I would pass this phrase, Hira Singh would come up to me and tap me smartly on the shoulder, and look at me with a glint in his eyes. He does not want me to add too much of my own balderdash into this post, but just post a few excerpts from that section to highlight this section.

However, I am me, and can’t always keep my mouth shut. So, I will stick my oar in, just a bit. But, not too much.

When I was in the corporate world, I used to fall asleep while listening to presentations. The Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly also put me to sleep. A corporate friend of mine -now a professor in Australia – criticised my writing, saying it is too much like storytelling.

“We need the courage of the heartbroken man at the top of the mountain to turn and go back down and turn his sorrow into joy. We need to hear the music he heard. We need his stories.”

Stories transform us. They are the stuff of which we are made.

“We are like the wandering Aesop…. There is only one way to survive his never-ending travels, and that is to transform everything he sees into a story so soul-satisfying for his hosts that they will gladly feed him and give him a bed. So, he learns to turn the enigmas of the day into the fables of the night.”

Stories, well told, bring magic back into our lives.

“Some strangers just bring news and gossip from down the road; the storyteller dares to bring more.”

Stories connect us to each other, to ourselves, and to the world we inhabit.

Transport yourselves to a fireside under the starry night, and listen to the stories from the past. Listen to the stories of the earth, and to those that bind us to the stars above.

I really adore your writing Raj! Your talents are much more suited for storytelling than a boring presentation. (And I’ve seen a lot of those too.) I like that you talk about things that are happening y’know? I’ve always preferred nonfiction because I enjoy hearing about the world around us especially about where you live and just the little things in life that make me smile or ignite curiosity in me. Thank you! And I love that saying about the mountain by the way. 🙂

And yet so many spend fortunes to learn how to tell stories in their business presentations. And then the attendees come back and forget to relate or include the actual business at hand in their story. They then get told to forget the story telling and so goes life, round and round, in the corporate world.

That is so true. I remember, when I was in China, and flew to Singapore to present my 5 year plan. I outlined the strategy, and how we intended to build the business. There were lots of photos in the presentation, and maps

Everyone in the audience was busy with their email, until I reached the financials. Suddenly, I sensed a ‘now we come to the serious part’ mood in the room! No one was interested in how I came to those financials!